PNL's Ludovic Orban argues in favour of restoring administrative capacities and public investments

The future Government that could be formed by the National Liberal Party (PNL) and other political parties will pay greater attention to restoring the administrative capacities necessary for the functioning of the state, as well as investments in the public domain, alongside other measures to encourage the economy, PNL Chairman Ludovic Orban said on Saturday evening. 

"The first and most important measure will be to restore the administrative capacities of the state by attracting and promoting competent people within these institutions, based on professionalism, meritocracy, as well as the objective evaluation of the activity of each employee in public institutions. A much slimmer government, 15, not more than 16 ministries, the reduction of the number of bureaucratic structures, offices, agencies, authorities of all kinds. These are fundamental things, because no public policy can be put into practice unless you have the body of officials to participate in its implementation," said Orban. 

The Liberal leader maintained that the preparation of next year's budget, but also the negotiation of the financial framework 2021-2027 with the EU is the biggest challenge. 

"Obviously, we have some important and very pressing tasks; the preparation of the state budget, the finalization of this year's budget. I am more than sure that we will have to issue a budget rectification, so as to keep the budget deficit within reasonable limits. (...) A fundamental element for the next seven years is the negotiation of the partnership agreement with the European Union for the multiannual financial framework 2021-2027; on the one hand, PNL MEPs are fighting in Brussels to obtain as much financing as possible, I hope we exceed 40 billion euros, and on the other hand, we have to negotiate with the EU what we spend this money on. There are areas that we consider as priorities and towards which we want to allocate resources, because our objective is to increase the economic dynamics, to attract investments, to strengthen the infrastructure as a support for economic development, to reduce the development disparities that exist in certain regions of the country, to allocate resources for increasing the quality of public services, in the field of health, in education, in the field of the insurance of the citizens' life, security, private property," said Ludovic Orban. 

He also mentioned that the future Government intends to encourage the economy through appropriate measures. 

"We will stimulate the increase of wages in the private sector through a dynamic of boosting investments, but also by an entrepreneurial attitude towards the business environment, so as to encourage private investments, either of domestic investors or foreign investments. Romania can develop on the basis of investments, innovation, research, enhancing competitiveness, placing the entire public system in the service of economic development," Orban affirmed. 

According to the PNL leader, the Social Democratic governing has caused an imbalance of the budget system that will need to be corrected. 

"The problem is the very large budget deficit caused by the PSD budget policy (...) and, normally, when you have a big deficit, to be able to pay the expenses you are forced to borrow. We will try to reduce the budget deficit, especially through economic growth measures, measures that rely on sustainable growth engines such as public investments, private investments, stimulating innovation, research, stimulating the transfer of know-how in Romania, attracting investments that will lead to the formation of new well-paid jobs, because there is indeed potential for development in Romania. Let us not forget that in the world there are tens and hundreds of billions of euros or dollars that are looking for places to be invested into in order to generate future returns. We must generate projects and we must attract these financial resources that, for the most part, are private, in order to be able to boost economic development," Ludovic Orban pointed out. 

The PNL leader participated on Saturday evening in the meeting of the PNL Maramures County Coordination Committee, which was also attended by the PNL leaders from Satu Mare, Salaj and Bistrita-Nasaud counties, local and parliamentary elected representatives. The chair of the party was also accompanied by MEP Rares Bogdan.